Seeing all the pictures and video of people catching these fish around DC has really got me interested in heading down there. Never felt like it before but the idea of catching one of these guys has me intrigued. Also has me questioning if they are truly that bad for the area, and thinking of other invasive species that have found homes in other bodies of water in the US.
Coming from little to no research on the issue, just my general thoughts...
Flatheads in Susquehanna-invasive but the state has given up trying to get them out of here, stopped with the insta kill command. Now the river has another big fish to aim for.
Gobies in the Great Lakes- everything I've read just keeps talking about how these little fish has allowed the walleye and smallmouths to just keep getting bigger and healthier.
Brown Trout- Not sure of this but I thought I saw something about them being brought over here from Europe.
And I'm very interested to see just how many areas have largemouth, smallmouth, walleyes, pike, etc that weren't there naturally. Heck just think of how many states now have "Florida" strain largemouth.
Obviously the Carp in the Mississippi is a bad thing, and white perch being dumped into local lakes have effected the fishing on them around me. And maybe long term this is how the Snakeheads are. But I'm thinking having another bigtime game fish to aim for isn't a bad thing. I could be totally wrong, it wouldn't surprise me.
Any thoughts? It's a weird issue that I'm conflicted on. I do want to catch one though, I'm not conflicted on that at all.